Director Raaj Shaandilyaa says his upcoming film \u201cVicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video\u201d, starring Rajkummar Rao and Triptii Dimri, has nothing to do with the Hollywood film \u201cSex Tape\u201d.<\/p>\n
The filmmaker, best known for the “Dream Girl” franchise headlined by Ayushmann Khurrana, said he hasn’t even seen the 2014 film featuring Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n“Vicky Vidya…” follows the titular married couple on a frantic search of a CD with a video of their wedding night, whereas “Sex Tape” revolves around a married couple who make a sex tape to spice up their relationship only to wake up the next morning to find that it has gone missing.<\/p>\n
Shaandilyaa said he found out that there was a film called “Sex Tape” after the trailer launch of “Vicky Vidya…”, which is set in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
“Someone asked me on Twitter, \u2018Is this film like \u2018Sex Tape\u2019? I\u2019m like, \u2018There\u2019s no sex in our film’. I was told by one of our writers that in that film their video goes viral on the Internet. The video in our film is made by the couple and they lose the CD because of their negligence.<\/p>\n
“The characters and story are different. Our film has nothing to do with \u2018Sex Tape\u2019. I\u2019ve not even seen \u2018Sex Tape\u2019. I didn\u2019t get inspired by it, rather I got inspired by life and the people around me,\u201d the director told PTI in an interview here.<\/p>\n
He is already working on the sequel of “Vicky Vidya…”, which will be set around the early days of the Internet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere this film ends, we\u2019ve got a sequel, which will be set 10-15 years later, when the advent of the Internet has happened. We\u2019ve written the story. We will shoot this film after I make another film,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The inspiration for \u201cVicky Vidya…\u201d came from co-writer Yusuf Ali Khan and the work on the screenplay began back in 2018, said Shaandilyaa.<\/p>\n
Prior commitments and the pandemic delayed the film’s development.<\/p>\n
The filmmaker said he had initially planned to make \u201cVicky Vidya…\u201d before \u201cDream Girl 2\u201d, which released last year.<\/p>\n
Shaandilyaa said he wanted to work with “Stree 2” star Rao for “the longest time”.<\/p>\n
“However, things happen, whenever they are destined to happen. The reason why I wanted to cast Rajkummar was because I needed a middle-class boy from a small-town city. I felt he perfectly fit the bill in terms of his body language and style.” <\/p>\n
Choosing Dimri to play Vidya stemmed from the need of a fresh pairing.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the role of Vidya, we needed someone who had not worked with Rajkummar. He had worked with Shraddha Kapoor in \u2018Stree\u2019, with Janhvi Kapoor in \u2018Roohi\u2019 and \u2018Mr. & Mrs. Mahi\u2019. We needed a fresh pair and that\u2019s when we thought of Triptii. She is a good actor. We had signed her before the release of \u2018Animal\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The director, who started out as a writer on the TV show “Comedy Circus”, said he exercises caution while penning dialogues.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I write, I ensure we don\u2019t talk about religion. You don\u2019t know what things could hurt people. For instance, if someone in our country loves China, he would be like how can you write the dialogue in your film, \u2018That China has attacked us 50 times\u2019. It\u2019s important to take comedy lightly, not seriously,\u201d said Shaandilyaa, whose dialogue writing credits include films such as “Welcome Back” and “Jabariya Jodi”.<\/p>\n
But why set \u201cVicky Vidya…\u201d in the ’90s? The filmmaker said he was driven by a desire to capture the essence of the CD era and its influence on society at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn those days, men would sport long hair and that\u2019s why the look of our actors in the film is that. It\u2019s not because we were inspired by Sanjay Dutt or Amitabh Bachchan. The reason why we wanted to show the era of the ’90s is that at that time, CDs were the in-thing.\u201d Shaandilyaa also revealed his plans for future projects, teasing collaborations with Khurrana, Rao, Kartik Aaryan, and Varun Dhawan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will make \u2018Dream Girl 3\u2019 but that\u2019s not going to be my next directorial venture. I have written about 10 scripts already. I\u2019ll direct my next film sometime in March or April, its script is ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve written more stories and any of these could fit Ayushmann, Rajkummar, Kartik and Varun. All four of them have shown interest in these ideas. These are different kinds of stories from hardcore comedy, satire, black comedy, to political drama,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cVicky Vidya…\u201d is scheduled to be released on October 11. <\/p>\n